


Supernatural, Season 5, Episode 3, Free to Be You and Me

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s05e03 Free to Be You and Me, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 05, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 07:43:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16342652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 5, Episode 3, Free to Be You and Me

Open to Sam being unable to sleep. Starting to turn over, he comes face-to-face with his dead fiancée, Jess. Wavering between being supportive and accusatory, she tells him to stop running from himself. She says him doing so is how people get killed in the first place.

A week earlier, Sam gets out of a car.

Meanwhile, hiding a sword between his trousers and shirt, Dean covers it with his jacket. How exactly he does so without being cut every time he moves is a mystery to me. He goes into a hospital.

Elsewhere, Sam burns all of his fake IDs.

Back at the hospital, Dean uses his FBI badge to gain access to some patients.

There’s intercutting shots of Dean on a hunt and Sam working in a bar as a waitress watches him closely. Interestingly, there’s a line in the background music, “Don’t forget, son, there is someone up above,” when the camera’s focused on Dean.

I’m not sure if Cas is the someone up above or is simply proof of it, but he’s been brought back numerous times, because, his duty of helping the Winchesters, especially Dean, isn’t done.

This isn’t even coming from a shipper view. He canonically pulled Dean from Hell, rebelled for Dean, cut his flesh and bled for Dean, and died for Dean, all but the first more than once. Whether he loves or hates Dean, something does compel him to help Dean, and he’s not done, yet.

After the hunt, Dean drives. He can’t help but look over at the empty passenger seat.

Later, in a hotel, he’s cleaning his jacket, and Cas appears behind him. Naturally, this startles him when he sees the reflection. He grumps, and puzzled, Cas simply says, “Hello, Dean.”

He turns around, and uncomfortably close, Cas is staring intently at his face. Taking a breath, he says, “Cas. We’ve talked about this. Personal space.”

The fact they’ve had such conversations, even off-screen, makes me happy.

Apologising, Cas steps back.

Rubbing his ribs, he asks how Cas found him since he’s supposed to be flying under angel radar.

“You are. Bobby told me where you were,” Cas answers. He asks where Sam is, and Dean explains he and Sam are going their own ways. Therefore, he’d like the necklace his baby brother gave him back.

Cas still has need for it, however, and he’d like Dean’s help with something else. Dean makes it clear he’s not going to go God-hunting. Cas explains he wants to find Raphael in order to interrogate him about God’s whereabouts.

Not bothering to point out, technically, this still puts them on God-hunt, Dean makes several TV references, none of which Cas understands, and asks for a good reason to help Cas.

The answer is no angel would dare harm Michael’s vessel. In other words, he’s like the ultimate shield.

He doesn’t appreciate this.

However, Cas somewhat emotionally says Dean’s the only one he can turn to. He practically begs.

So, Dean agrees, but when Cas tries to zap them, he makes it clear human transportation will be utilised.

At the bar, the waitress has figured out Sam, going by the name Keith, is almost-genius level smart and is curious about his story. She challenges him to a game of darts. If she wins, he takes her to dinner and tells said story.

Agreeing, he does really well. She’s impressed, but he’s distracted by a news report of mysterious things a-happening.

Elsewhere, Cas and Dean have arrived at a police station. A deputy sheriff saw Raphael, and somehow, he still has eyes. Dean asks what the plan is.

Confused, Cas answers they’ll tell the officer he witnessed an angel of the lord, and then, he’ll tell them where said angel is.

This scene is endearingly hilarious, but I’m not sure it’s entirely in-character.

Cas knows most humans don’t know about the supernatural, including angels. Many people believe in angels, but not only does he have a good grasp of faith vs. actually knowing, he’s standing in front of a man he knows used to be convinced angels didn’t exist. Moreover, aside from knowing many humans lie, he’s been around the Winchesters enough to know they lie almost all the time on cases. They use fake names, they claim to have professions they don’t, and they usually try to get things done without unnecessarily exposing people to knowledge of the supernatural.

Meaning, a conversation similar to this should have happened a long time ago, or it should have never happened at all.

Setting himself for big trouble when Cas starts lying to him, Dean nixes this plan. Putting a fake badge in Cas’s pocket, he adorably straightens Cas’s tie as he explains the human way of getting things one really wants is to lie.

Inside, Dean shows his badge, and after some prodding stares from both Dean and the deputy, Cas does likewise. There’s the minor issue of him holding it upside down, but clearly, something is on their side, since the officer accepts Dean’s explanation of Cas being new as a reason to not, at worst, immediately arrest them for impersonating federal officers or, at still pretty bad, demand Cas take a breathalyzer/drug test/both.

A person could have played it off as a joke, a simple mistake which wasn’t immediately realised, or just having an extremely distracted, detached day where even going on autopilot doesn’t help, but Dean doesn’t even try to this for Cas, and Cas certainly doesn’t try.

In the deputy sheriff’s office, he talks about a riot, and Castiel immediately says angels and demons caused it. Dean tries to get him to be quiet, and when this doesn’t work, he claims his partner is using the term “demons” as a euphemism for vices.

There was a bright light, the deputy sheriff tells them, and there was a mechanic kneeling. He’s at the hospital.

At said hospital, Raphael’s vessel is still alive but empty. So, does this mean the guy’s body is living despite his soul being gone, which raises questions about Soul-challenged Sam, or is he completely catatonic, which isn’t the same thing as empty?

Meanwhile, Sam almost calls Dean but decides on Bobby. Telling him about the omens, he suggests Bobby put a hunter on it. Bobby thinks he’s talking to said hunter, but Sam makes it clear he’s sitting this one out. “I’m so sorry,” he says.

Over to Cas and Dean, Cas has gotten back from Jerusalem with special oil. Dean thinks trapping Raphael sounds like trapping a hurricane with a butterfly net, and Cas corrects it’s even harder.

And now, I’m imagining baby!Cas literally catching a hurricane with a butterfly net and proudly showing it to his older siblings.

Dean asks if they have any chance of surviving this.

“You do,” Cas answers.

“So, odds are, you’re a dead man tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

Cas said Dean was the only one who could/would help him, but it seems like he just wanted to spend more time with Dean before he died.

Dean should be safe due to his vessel status, he said. This does make Dean the only one who can safely help him, but it doesn’t mean Dean’s the only who would. Moreover, looking at everything, Cas might not actually need help. He could have gotten the information from the deputy sheriff by himself, though perhaps not as smoothly and easily as Dean did, he could have gone to the hospital by himself, and he can do the ritual and interrogation by himself.

Dean might be a better interrogator, and if Cas dies, he might be able to make use of the information, but if this was all, Cas could have just told Dean to drive to Maine, and by the time he arrived, Cas would have had everything ready.

I don’t think any of this is conscious manipulation on Cas’s part. Dean’s so important in his mind, he automatically assigns Dean a bigger, more important role in this than Dean truly inhibits. He’s too busy focusing on what’s about to go down to truly stop to think about the extent Dean is important. Dean just is.

Dean asks what his plans are, and Cas answers he plans to sit quietly until the time comes. Dean does not find this acceptable. He asks about booze and/or women, and the look Cas gives at the latter is interesting, to say the least.

He’s nervous, uncomfortable, and perhaps, slightly ashamed, but I’m not sure any of it is from his virginity so much as being aware of a sexual attraction to Dean, not knowing how to deal with it, and a general feeling of: My crush is talking about sex and me, like, in the same sentence. Obviously, death is the only option. Now, how do I manage to unlock the window and fall to my death from the first floor?

Incredulous, Dean asks if Cas has really never been with a woman, and then, realising women aren’t the only option but not ready to hear the answer in regards to the other option, continues, “Or an angel, at least?”

This isn’t going to fly. Dean has a line I was never able to make out the first sentence of until I read other people’s comments on it. Assuming they’re right, Dean tells Cas he knows two things, “One, Bert and Ernie are gay. Two, you are not going to die a virgin. Not on my watch.”

Given the show’s strange relationship with adult virginity, I think Cas is, within this season and several others, the only acknowledged adult virgin who hasn’t been permanently killed.

Meanwhile, at the bar, some hunters loudly get Sam’s attention, despite his clear desire not to talk to them. The waitress is curious about his name, and he claims Sam is a middle name.

Personally, I think he should have said his name was Samuel Keith and he recently decided to go by his middle name.

They explain the Samuel part, however, and point out Keith Samuel is odd, but it’s not as awkward sounding as Keith Sam.

One of them explains they were hunting buddies with his dad, but Sam’s a good hunter himself.

He gets them some drinks, and they explain Bobby sent them. He also told them Sam was off limits.

Good to know they listened.

Notably, one of these men is black. I mention this, because, one of these men will die later, and in an aversion to the standard formula, it’s not the black guy.

They try to convince him to help, he refuses, and they tell him he’ll, at least, buy their drinks when they get back. He agrees, and they leave. The waitress, Lindsay, comes over, and she’s insistent they go out for dinner.

At a brothel, Cas is full-out silently panicking.

This is supposed to be comedic, but I don’t find funny.

Really? A brothel? Dean couldn’t have done the feeding lines through an earpiece trick, or more realistically and reasonably, found a woman, flirted with her, and then, asked if maybe she had a friend who wouldn’t mind his somewhat quirky friend?

Cas insists he shouldn’t be here due to his angelic status, but Dean insists this is a perk of rebelling. A woman named Chastity tries to flirt with Cas.

She goes to wait by the backroom, and giving Cas money, Dean tells him to keep it simple and say no to credit card usage. Cas refuses to move, and Dean warns, “Don’t make me push you.”

Last season, Cas implied he’d throw Dean back into Hell if Dean didn’t treat him with proper respect. Funny how drastically relationship dynamics can sometimes change.

After Cas leaves, Dean is having a nice time when Chastity screams. Dean runs into the backroom(s). Cas is being pelted with something, and she yells at both of them before running off. It turns out he told her the fact her dad left wasn’t due to her but his hatred of his job.

In response, Dean has a line that, due to Jensen’s tone and facial and body language, is funny right up until close attention is paid to the words. He says women with father issues are what keeps the prostitution business booming.

Some women legitimately choose sex work and are, at least, content with their work. They have the ability to get out if they want. However, the reality is many women, and worse, young girls are coerced by screwed-up societies into it. Sometimes, it’s explicit sexual slavery, and sometimes, it’s things such as poverty, racism, sexism, lack of education and access to basic necessities, etc. that make it a matter of survival. Saying prostitutes are just women using their sexuality as a way to work through familial issues/stick it to their families is untrue and not funny.

Security comes, and the duo bolts. Dean is dreadfully amused, and ignoring my irritation with his statement, it’s a cute scene with the way he has an arm around Cas.

Cas is vaguely smiling; he’s confused but simply happy at Dean’s happiness.

When they get to the car, however, Dean’s smile vanishes as he fully realises it’s been a long time since he had so much fun with Sam.

Back over to Sam and Lindsay, she coaxes him into revealing the basic circumstances of things and comes to the correct conclusion he’s an addict, though, naturally, she’s thinking drugs or alcohol. Digging out a sobriety chip, she tells him it’s been three years for her.

“You work in a bar,” Sam says.

I never understood Sam Malone from Cheers working in a bar, but this is only because his addiction was alcohol. If her addiction is narcotics, her working in a bar doesn’t strike me as a contradiction. I suppose there’s a risk of addiction displacement, but there’s a risk of it happening with anything.

“So do you.” She continues she doesn’t know ‘Keith’ or his story, but she does know no one has ever done anything so bad they can’t be forgiven.

At the hospital, Cas and Dean try to summon Raphael.

The man playing him/the vessel, Demore Barnes, is good. Aside from the fact, I don’t think many people, me included, could have their personal space invaded so thoroughly, be verbally insulted, and continue to sit so stoically, he was awesome in Hannibal.

Later during the night, at whatever place they’re crashing at, Raphael appears, and Dean taunts him. “By the way, hi, I’m Dean,” he continues, because, even though they’re only quasi-boyfriends, it’s important Cas’s family knows exactly who they’re dealing with.

Cas makes it clear Raphael won’t be killing Dean.

Again, it’s important to establish these things early on.

Agreeing, Raphael declares he can take Dean to Michael and do worse than Zacharias did in order to try to get Dean to say yes.

Except for the little part where they were prepared for this and trap him in holy fire. Raphael glares, and Dean is freaked out enough he says, “Don’t look at me. It was his idea.”

Cas sort of glares. This causes a half-sheepish, half-defiant shrug from Dean. Then, they simultaneously half-turn to face Raphael.

If the writers had wanted to write the two as more of brothers/best friends, this is more of how they should have done it.

Raphael declares God is dead.

In the bar, the two non-dead hunters hold Lindsay at knifepoint. Demanding Sam tell them the truth about certain things, they hint they’ve heard about his role in the apocalypse.

Meanwhile, Raphael asks if God would have let what happened in the 20th century and what’s happening in the 21st happen if he were around.

I have no problem with people questioning or outright denying the existence of any deities based on the fact horrible things happen. However, I take exception to him singling these two centuries out.

Horrible things, some on par with the atrocities during these two centuries, some even worse, have happened throughout history. The difference is, we have cameras and other recording devices now. They’re rather easy to obtain, use, and distribute the material from. Some of the particularly horrid parts of history were successfully covered up, and with some, as horrible as reading about it is, the printed word of it pales in comparison to the crystal clear, high-res, HD, unbiased, unflinching visual proof of the horrors today.

Dean makes a snarky comment about a certain sex position.

Funny story: I know this, because, I used a search engine to try to figure out what exactly he was talking about, and the first result I got was about someone asking about this very episode. Awesomely, I don’t think the censors had any clue what they were letting past.

Raphael is offended by Dean talking about his father and sex in the same sentence. Fair enough. He explains angels hate living in the current world, and so, since God has abandoned them, they’re going to bring about the apocalypse and have paradise.

Why don’t they just leave the humans alone and work on making heaven a paradise for themselves?

He smashes the windows with his mind, and Cas tries to shield Dean’s body with his own.

At the bar, Sam admits to having a part in starting the apocalypse.

Back to the duo, Cas asks how he’s back from the dead if God is dead. Raphael suggests Lucifer was responsible. Realising he’s not going to get anymore, Cas tells Dean they’re leaving.

Again, aside from being there for moral support, which, admittedly can be extremely important, Dean has done nothing Cas couldn’t have done by himself.

Raphael orders Cas not to leave him, but Cas has what would be an awesome retort if not for a misogynist word choice on his part. Impressed, Dean proudly leaves the parting shot, “What he said.”

Back to Sam and the others. Producing a vial of demon blood, they insist he’s going to avenge their friend. Handcuffing Lindsay, they force it into him.

Spitting it out, he gets one of them cornered with a knife.

Lindsay’s watching, however. Part of it is wanting her to be right about him being redeemable, but another part of it is the fact he doesn’t want to expose any civilians to the harsher realities of life if he can avoid it. He was exposed to it much too early, denied a chance at having a happy life, and he doesn’t want it done to others.

I think it would have been interesting if the earlier conversation Dean and Cas had about lying had been between Cas and Sam or Cas and both of them. John taught them to lie, and they know lying is usually easier. Sam’s answer, though, would probably be it’s an act of kindness. Tell the people they need not be afraid of the dark and make sure they never have to be instead of handing them a gun and letting them know the dark is even worse than they ever imagined.

Leaving, warn him they’ll be back, and his response is, “Don’t think I won’t be here.”

He won’t. He’s not going to stick around to put Lindsay and all the other innocent people in more danger. He’s going to get her home or to the hospital, pack his stuff, and go somewhere where, hopefully, he doesn’t put more people in danger.

Meanwhile, in the car, Dean bonds with Cas over their respective distant fathers and tells him, crazy crusade or not, if Cas believes God is out there, he should go find him. Cas tries to return the favour by asking about Dean.

Dean insists he’s fine without Sam. He adds he’s had more fun with Cas than he has with Sam in years.

Yeah, because, he’s spending quality time with the person he’s in love with. They’re going through their first honeymoon stage. Of course, it’s going to trump over the person’s he gotten more than use to and is having trust issues with.

However, he needs Sam more than he does Cas, and he likely always will. Whether it’s healthy or not, Dean’s built his whole emotional stability around being close, both physically and emotionally, to his brother. Keeping Sam safe and, if possible, happy is what he considers the most important. If they ever settle into a more conventional life, even if it includes significant others and kids for one or both of them, he’d still only be happy if he lived near Sam and saw him on a constant basis.

Instead of answering, Cas simply disappears.

Later, Sam has another conversation with Jess. He insists people can change.

Jess morphs into Lucifer. He asks if Sam would consider telling him where Sam is. He wants to give Sam a gift for helping free him. Sam makes it clear he wants nothing from Lucifer, and in fact, he will stop him. Disagreeing, Lucifer explains Sam is his true vessel.

Sam considers suicide, but Lucifer says he’ll just bring him back. He promises he’ll never lie to or trick Sam.

This is interesting considering how the hallucination of him and him in Cas’s body later does both.

Sam asks why he’s the unlucky one, and Lucifer doesn’t really give an answer before disappearing.

Fin.


End file.
